With my brother Len in town...

When my brother Len came to my house on Sunday, February 20th, he began a series of repairs and installations. First he spent a day at the recently acquired "fix up house" on Curacao Drive three miles north of our house. He installed a garage door opener, fixed a faucet or two and a couple of cabinets.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, he has been crawling in the attic, running wires down the walls to the switch plates by each of the bedroom doors, in order to install ceiling fans with light kits. Can I just say he is amazing.

Here is what the kitchen light looks like now, before he moves the ceiling fan from the master bedroom (which matches the ceiling fan in the family room), and installs a lighter, brighter light kit over the breakfast table.


This light has bothered me since we moved in on December 1, 2009. And we will have the added benefit of a fan right by the ceiling register to move more air. This past summer when it was really hot, we did not have enough air movement to keep Staci and baby cool. This should fix the problem.


Today he will finish the last upstairs wiring for the toy/sewing room. Here is the picture of the room before the fan is installed. Look how organized his tools and equipment is! He is the cleanest handyman I have ever had work on my houses.




Here is the marking of where the fan will be installed. He cuts the sheet rock circle out, go in the attic, run the wire from the outlet and switch on the wall up and over to the hole in the ceiling. He installs a support bracket to hold the fan and attaches the electrical wires so everything works, including two switches: one for the fan and a second for the light.




Here is the installed ceiling fan in one bedroom. For those of you who have stayed in our house, which room is this?

Len installed fans in four bedrooms yesterday. Two rooms have this bigger light fixture and two rooms have a four blade, smaller light, but they light the room with amazing distribution of light.


Here is what the fan looks like in the master bedroom. It will be moved to the kitchen breakfast area, with a different light kit. My next post will show the finished look.




And guess what Len discovered in the attic when he was stringing wire around? Over Staci's settee, there was a two by two section in the corner with NO INSULATION! I am sure that does not come as a surprise to Staci and Eric. He filled the space with some insulation.

After Len finishes with all of his work in the attic and such, we are going to have another 10-12 inches of insulation blown in, so those little cracks and crevices will be keep the heat and cold out. Maybe the rooms will feel cooler or warmer. Come visit us and check it out.

My advice for this post: when doing projects such as this, don't have a house full of company! Every bedroom is filled with guests! Who knew when people were coming! It keeps me out of trouble.